Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Dr. BabaSaheb Ambedkar – A multifaceted personality

Dr. BabaSaheb Ambedkar
– A multifaceted personality

Eight years ago, on a visit to my village with my family, I
spotted a statue of a person right in the centre of the village. He was wearing
spectacles and was dressed in a suit. I wondered who he was. I looked down at
the inscription on the pedestal of the statue. It read “Dr. B.R. Ambedkar”.

That was the very first time I came across Dr. Babsaheb Ambedkar.

Casteism(and untouchability) has been around for thousands of
years. People have tried to rebel but none have succeeded in doing so as
successfully as Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar. He did so not through ‘fear’ but by
appealing to the inner conscience of people. True, it did take time for it
settle in the hearts but, the wait was more than worth the blood-shed had a
feud taken place.

History has given us many leaders
but only a few have managed to shake the very foundations and be successful.
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is definitely one of them.

His page on Wikipedia lists him as anIndian Jurist, political leader, philosopher, thinker, anthropologist, historian,orator, prolific writer, economist, scholar,
editor, a revolutionary and one of the founding fathers of independent India.
That’s enough proof to tell you that he is a multi-faceted personality.

He is a combination of the best. He
has a will of iron like Sardar Vallabhai Patel(The iron man) combined with the
power of pushing people into action like Mahatma Gandhi. He fought for his
people and not once did he back down and ask himself why he was doing what he
was doing. Many people think serving the society as a burden, not him. He believed
that serving the people around him was his responsibility.

Prejudice
surprised him. As a child, he didn’t understand why it even existed. How was he
different from the others? Why shouldn’t he be treated equally like the others?
Why won’t people understand that he was no different from them?

His childhood is filled with
memories that showed him, how deep casteism had dug into the Indian hearts. It
was etched into their hearts as though someone/something had soldered it there.
Right from not being able to drink water because he wasn’t allowed to touch the
water-cups to being shunned by the station master because he was an untouchable.

We might read about those incidents and feel
sorry for him. But, in reality, these were the incidents that helped
realization dawn on him and mature faster. He realized just how cruel the Hindu
idealogy of ‘untouchability’ was.

These incidents didn’t deter him. They didn’t
trouble him as they would have troubled others. If anything, they just doubled
his determination to put an end to this practice.

He was curious and tried asking others “why?” but
their answers never seemed to satisfy him.

It was this endless thirst for knowledge that
persuaded him to become what he did. If there was one thing that persuaded him
in completing his education, it was the hope that at the end, he’d have
answers.

His
parents played a really important role in his upbringing. Had his father not
realized the importance of education, I doubt it if he would have even thought
about sending his son, Bhimrao Ramji to school. He even shifted his house to
Mumbai on the advice of Bhimrao’s teacher to give him a better education at the
Elphinstone High School. He managed to keep his scores and grades high despite
the cruel treatment that he was meted out to by his class-mates. In a
particular incident, he wasn’t allowed to write on the blackboard because his
classmates thought that their lunch-boxes, which were stacked on the other side
of the black board would get ‘polluted’.

He was identified by some
organizations who were interested in improving the standards of the society.
When he passed his matriculation exam, a big party was held to congratulate on
his achievement of being the first to pass this exam from his society.

Though Bhimrao Ramji was 17 years
then and an educated person, he could not voice his opinions against child
marriage. He was married to Ramabai a nine-year old girl from the neighbouring
town of Dapoli.

People who take full advantages of
the opportunities given to them are the ones who turn out to be most
successful. Bhimrao Ramji understood this ‘truth’ of life pretty early in his
life and when a chance to go abroad for higher studies came about, he accepted
it. This was possible through a scheme of the Maharaja of Baroda, Sayajirao
Gaekwad II, which gave a scholarship to some outstanding scholars to study in
the United States of America.

This was a very important stage in
Bhimrao Ramji’s life. He went to study at the well-known Columbia University,
New York. After years of facing unrelented prejudice in India, he welcomed the
freedom and equality he experienced in the United States. Though racism wasn’t
extinct, the life he led there was refreshing. No one discriminated him. It was
as though he had landed in a land of utopia. It was probably from here that
Bhimrao Ramji mustered up the courage to fight casteism in India. He envisioned
the life he led in the US for every Indian Dalit.

While in the university, he could
have done anything. There was no one to tell him to do anything but, he chose
to study. Eighteen hours a day. This led him to complete his Ph.D. thesis in
just 3 years and he received an M.A in two years.

He then went to the London School of
Economics but as fate would have it, his scholarship expired and he had to come
back to the state of Baroda.

He was offered a high post in the
Civil Services and held a doctorate. These were despicable days. He once again
faced the discrimination because of his caste. No one handed him files or
papers, even the peon threw them onto this desk. This gives us an idea of how
‘untouchability’ had become a part of everyone’s heart.

He had enough of the treatment he
was being given here and decided to quit. He managed to obtain the job of a
professor of political economy in the Sydenham college of Commerce and Economics,
Bombay. He still had this urging desire in him to continue his higher studies.
He went to England in 1920 at his own expenses. In the next three years, he
managed to get numerous awards and qualified as a Barrister-at-Law.

He returned to his mother land at
the ripe age of 23. He knew however that nothing had changed around him. People
didn’t care what his qualifications there. They refused to see the light of the
day and continued to treat him as an ‘untouchable’.

It was then that Bhimrao Ramji felt
that the time to do something about it had finally come about. Even though his
qualifications meant nothing to other people, he was well respected within the
Dalit community. He had received the best education any Dalit in those times
could get and hence had the potential to be the leader of the Dalit community.

He started voicing his opinions and
things that he felt should be reformed. One of them was the separate electoral
system for the Dalits and other lower castes. He also favored providing
reservations for the Dalit and other minority communities.

Some incidents have shown his true
fearlessness. He believed that justice doesn’t come on it’s own, people must
try and secure it for themselves.

Even though the legislature allowed
everyone to use public water, wells and tanks, dalits were still afraid to use
them. One such was the Mahad(Raigad, Maharashtra) municipality tank which had
opened four years ago but not one ‘untouchable’ had drunk from it. Dr.
Babasaheb Ambedkar led a peaceful procession to the Chowdar tank and became the
first ‘untouchable’ to drink from it. This action provided the necessary
courage that other’s needed and they drank from it as well.

He believed in setting an example
for others.

He
was glorified as a hero by thousands of his followers on his return from Bombay
after the separate electoral system had been granted.

However, Mahatma Gandhi opposed it.
He believed the Harijans(children of god – Untouchables) and Hindus would never
reconcile if this idea went forward. He believed that Hinduism would change and
leave the bad practices behind. He began a fast-unto-death.

Only Babasaheb had a say in this
matter. At first, he refused Gandhiji’s plea saying that he was doing what was
best for his people but, as the matter prolonged and Gadhiji’s health began
failing, he visited him. In subsequent visits and numerous talks, Gandhiji had
finally managed to convince Babasaheb Ambedkar that Hinduism would change and
leave it’s bad practices behind. Instead of separate electorates, more
representation was to be given to the depreesed classes.

The period between 1935 and 1950 was
his prime-life. He was appointed the Principle of the Government Law college,
Bombay.

During the Second World War, he was
appointed as the Labour Minister. However, he remained in touch with who he
was. He didn’t turn corrupt. He said that he was born poor and his attitude
towards people never changed and never would change.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar is best known as
one of the founding fathers of the constitution.

All his study in law, economics, and
politics made him the best man available for this job. He had to make a
constitution for the World’s largest democracy. He stood up to the job and did
all the research he could on the constitutions of other countries and a deep
knowledge of the law. He had to face this burden alone, he alone could do
justice to this task. He didn’t back down by the sheer enormity of the task,
instead, he faced it. Head on.

He said that “Hinduism has only
given us insults, misery, and humiliation.” At a Dalit conference in 1935, he
said “We have not been able to secure the barest of human rights….I am born a
Hindu. I couldn’t help it, but I solemnly assure you that I will not die a Hindu.”

After
attending a Buddhist Conference in Srilanka, a few years after the
independence, he announced that all ‘oppressed’ people should embrace Buddhism
as the way of life. He also said that he was going to devote the rest of his
lie to the revival of Buddhism in India.

For the next 5 years, he carried on
a relentless fight against caste discrimination. The battle was half-won when
the constitution prohibited the practice of untouchability in India, However,
Ambedkar knew that it would take a long-time before it managed to get through
the heart of every Indian.

He embraced Buddhism in 1956 at a
public ceremony. He became one with nature just 7 weeks later….

That was
the end of the life of one of the most charismatic leaders in the History of
India.

He was one of those who changed the
course of history, moved and shook the world. He showed the path the people
should follow and occupied a million hearts. People like him don’t come about
often but, when they do, they leave such a lasting effect that persists for
ages to come. Few people on Earth have managed to cause a paradigm shift like
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. Even fewer have managed to do it with his tenacity. He
was a true leader.

Men like Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar are
immortal. They continue to live long after they become one with nature. His
memory continues to live in the Dalits who till this date, respect him with all
their heart. The coming generations will continue to respect him and cherish
his memory.

1 comment:

MENTION EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION OF Dr.AMBEDKAR ON UR WEBSITE,EVERY BANNER/POSTER,BELOW EVERY STATUE,BELOW EVERY PHOTO/PAMPHLET Why not mention THE GREATNESS OF “THE GREATEST INDIAN” with proudAbove single line and his lifetime struggle,reveals THE GREATNESS... .. .

B.A.(Bombay University), Bachelor of ArtsMA.(Columbia university), Master Of Arts M.Sc.( London School of Economics), Master Of SciencePh.D. (Columbia University), Doctor of philosophy D.Sc.( London School of Economics), Doctor of ScienceL.L.D.(Columbia University), Doctor of LawsD.Litt.( Osmania University). Doctor of LiteratureBarrister-at-Law (Gray’s Inn, London), law qualification for a lawyer in royal court of England

ALL THIS EDUCATION ACHIEVED BEFORE 1954 !!! HOW REMARKABLE!!! !! !

EVEN IF ALL his educational qualification and COMPLETE CONTRIBUTION TO ALL ASPECTS OF HUMANITY is purposefully often neglected,kept hidden,secret,unnoticed,unpublished for 55 Years !!! !! !HE WON THE AWARD OF GREATEST INDIA !!! !! !THE PERSON WHO SAT OUTSIDE THE CLASS,TO WHOM DRINKING WATER WAS DENIED ... .. . THE SAME PERSON HAS BECOME ... .. .""" $$$ THE GREATEST INDIAN $$$ """MOST EDUCATED INDIAN SCHOLAR !!! !! !circulate... .. .circulate... .. .circulate... .. .